24-Hour Beauty

The asiatic (common) dayflower, "Commelina communis," is a small, bright blue and yellow flower. The flower can easily be missed due to its small stature, but it remains one of my favorites to see bloom. I most commonly see them in the summer and fall seasons.

Perhaps one of my favorite things about dayflowers is in their namesake. Dayflowers only bloom for one day, so their beauty is easily missed. I find there to be something strangely poetic about such a brightly colored flower only being viewable for a single day before its petals shrivel and fall. In my mind, I consider myself lucky to find these tiny flowers sprouting in seemingly random places. I feel as though their beauty should be appreciated and admired for the little time that they hold in the sunlight.

Even with their beauty, asiatic dayflowers are considered invasive in many states, and are considered a pest weed even in their native country of China. The dayflower doesn't typically affect ecosystem processes, but may alter plant diversity by outcompeting native plant species. Even so, the dayflower spreads slowly, and is typically limited to non-natural, disturbed sites, like along the edge of a building or beside a sidewalk path.

In some ways, the treatment of the dayflower reminds me of how I viewed dandelions as a child. As kids, we would watch the weeds turn from their bright yellow flowers to their fluffy, seeded heads. Making a wish on a dandelion stalk might as well be synonymous with childhood innocence. We appreciated the wonder and joy that dandelions brought us as children, but as adults, we condemn the flowering weeds for their ability to spread across lawns and disturb garden beds. Just as the dayflower can be admired for its unique beauty but hated for its invasive nature, dandelions can be admired for the memories they brought us in our youths but hated for their pesky resilience to human removal.

I understand that the dayflower isn't the kind of flower that you'd find in a garden or a picked for a bouquet, but somehow, that makes its charm all the more special to me.